Let the Good Times Roll: 1 Million More Americans in Poverty in 2004

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Saras
American notions of "poverty" disgust me. You guys have no clue what poverty is.

What's funny is that so many people have no clue how bad it gets for the truely poor in this country. Poverty is both absolute and relative, but conservatives only want to look at relative poverty in America, not the people living in shacks without running water or electricity, living in crumbling apartment buildings filled with mold, roaches, lead paint, dodging drug dealers and criminals in the street, etc. Then there are those that have to live in their cars, even when they have a job, washing in bathroom sinks, washing a handful of clothes at a laundrymat, eating one or two meals a day, the families that double and triple up in tiny arpartments.

But our poor are invisibile. No one sees them, and if they are acidentally notied, there is a corus of conservatives rushing forward to egerly point out how it is the fault of the poor for being poor, that America is nothing but bountiless opportunity, and how each and every single one of us could be billionaries if we really put our minds to it. And you stupid foriegners drink it up like ambrosia.

You have no ****ing clue.

And then there are those who wish they had a car to live in.

[Saras]

All the stupid Lithuanian foriegners (sic) I know have come back with AmEx checks worth thousands after working for a couple of months in US, earned with hard work and at the same time living in a decent apartment, and partying like hell. If a foriegner can do that, why can't America's "poor"? Are you guys sure you're not taking some inevitable statistical outliers and multiplying them by the millions?

[chequita guevara]

Honestly, many people are more willing to give certain foreigners a chance than they would to historically improvished groups of Americans. Also, various immigrants have social networks into which they can fit, which help them out with a place to live, a job, etc. Koreans are the most famous for this, but I know a lot of Eastern Europeans and South Asians do this as well. It's a lot easier to maintain this cohesiveness when you're an outsider in a somewhat hostile environment (we don't really like foreigners all that much, never have, no matter how much we need you).

Americans ourselves are far too individiualistic to setup such networks for our own internal communities. The rich have them, certain middle class people have them (school fraterinties, etc.). America's poor are effectively frozen out, though a handful do manage to escape poverty, not all of those who try and "deserve" to escape poverty do.

I really suggest you pick up Nickle and Dimed, which molly bloom suggested earlier.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Molly I will need you to explain what exactly you mean by white collar clerical. I have worked as a hotel house keeper when i was younger that was hard work, but what i was trying to say is that my job as an O.R nurse is just as exhausting. The only difference now is i get paid a bit more then the houskeeper. I am still just as exhausted when i get home after work as i was when i cleaned rooms.
As far as public transportation i dont use it now but i did in hawaii i had to ride the bus for 45 minutes to and from work and that was the most mind draining experience. The thing that got to me was the 80 people taling out loud to each other all getting louder and louder tryng to talk over the next guy.

[:) Smiley]

If this is an indication of where things are headed, the size of the average American new house has reached the point where it is no longer possible to maintain without hired help. Not surprisingly many of these houses come with multiple guest bedrooms, sometimes located in a such a place as to be obviously a euphemism for servant's quarters.

We may be headed towards a modern version of a feudal society, with the aristocracy being the capital owning class.

[Kontiki]

White collar clerical is basically an office job. Stuff like being a receptionist or office manager. You could, I suppose, broaden that to be any white collar job from lawyer to low level paper pusher at a bank, depending on how you want to interpret "clerical". None of those would tend to be particularly physically demanding.

[Az]

All the stupid Lithuanian foriegners (sic) I know have come back with AmEx checks worth thousands after working for a couple of months in US, earned with hard work and at the same time living in a decent apartment, and partying like hell.

Prostitution

[Saras]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Honestly, many people are more willing to give certain foreigners a chance than they would to historically improvished groups of Americans. Also, various immigrants have social networks into which they can fit, which help them out with a place to live, a job, etc.

Lithuanians will make sure you DON'T find a place to live, and I'm not even going into helping jobs. We're a nation of a$sholes.

[Saras]

Originally posted by Az

Prostitution

You just insulted my sister in law. You're dead

[Az]

I am not afraid of any of you assh*les (sic).

[Saras]

Very good, I'll sneak up on ya

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Patroklos
I also think that millionares should be taken out of the figuring of the poverty line. If a stock broker rakes in another 25 mil this year and the everyone else stays the same, the poverty line goes up making previous middile class people now "poor" though their actual means have not changed.

Top rate earners (defined as x% or something similar) are not included in the relative measure of income, if its anything like the measuring of relative poverty here.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Really not that many people want to be Usians.

Surely not!

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

Originally posted by Saras
American notions of "poverty" disgust me. You guys have no clue what poverty is.

What's funny is that so many people have no clue how bad it gets for the truely poor in this country. Poverty is both absolute and relative, but conservatives only want to look at relative poverty in America, not the people living in shacks without running water or electricity, living in crumbling apartment buildings filled with mold, roaches, lead paint, dodging drug dealers and criminals in the street, etc. Then there are those that have to live in their cars, even when they have a job, washing in bathroom sinks, washing a handful of clothes at a laundrymat, eating one or two meals a day, the families that double and triple up in tiny arpartments.

But our poor are invisibile. No one sees them, and if they are acidentally notied, there is a corus of conservatives rushing forward to egerly point out how it is the fault of the poor for being poor, that America is nothing but bountiless opportunity, and how each and every single one of us could be billionaries if we really put our minds to it. And you stupid foriegners drink it up like ambrosia.

You have no ****ing clue.

And then there are those who wish they had a car to live in.

Commie laying it down.

[DanS]

Originally posted by Smiley
If this is an indication of where things are headed, the size of the average American new house has reached the point where it is no longer possible to maintain without hired help. Not surprisingly many of these houses come with multiple guest bedrooms, sometimes located in a such a place as to be obviously a euphemism for servant's quarters.

We may be headed towards a modern version of a feudal society, with the aristocracy being the capital owning class.

The size of the average American house has stayed steady for several years after rising for many decades. People are now upgrading what's in their houses, making the Home Depot a good investment, etc. Of course, the household is becoming slightly smaller, meaning that each household member has more living room.

I fully expect us to be some of the heaviest buyers of Japan's domestic androids to be introduced in the coming decades.